I followed the strange elf girl as she walked through the corridors. She mumbled to herself a lot, once again giving me a feeling like she wasn’t all there in the head. Every once in a while, she’d look back, notice me, jump, and then pick up the pace, almost like she forgot I was following her until my appearance reminded her of her current task. Perhaps, following a ghost was not the best decision I made.

The only good news was that ghosts seemed almost afraid of her. I used life sense, since ghosts were considered an entity, not an undead, and it seemed to work for some reason. I was able to detect plenty of ghosts around the mansion. However, they seemed to scatter whenever this crazy elf walked down the same hallway as them. Whatever curse seemed to affect the mansion, I felt like this ghost had some part to play in it.

Finally, she stopped. I wasn’t paying attention and kept walking. A second later she was right in front of me. I let out a gasp and put out my hand, she spun around and saw my hand going for her head. She ducked back, looking up, but still, my hand went straight through were her forehead should have been as if there was nothing there. I stared for a second. She really was incorporeal.

She jumped back several feet, covering herself. “N-no touching!”

“Ahh… I stumbled, my bad.”

“Y-you saw?” She said confusingly.

“Saw what? Hahaha…” I laughed nervously. “Aren’t you taking me to the entrance?”

“We’re here!” She responded, a pouty expression on her face.

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I turned to the only thing in front of us. It was a stairway down, leading deeper into the dungeon.

“This is a stairway down. Are you really screwing with me?” I demanded angrily.

“Eh?” She spun back around, looking genuinely surprised. “But I swear, the door was right… wait…”

Suddenly, she put on a confused expression, like her brain wasn’t working right.

“How many levels are we down anyway?” I demanded.

“Down… levels… stairway…” She grabbed her head for a moment. “Where… no, we’re in Master’s Mansion. I must protect Master’s Mansion!

“Oi… calm down a moment!” I help up my hands. “Clearly, this is a level to a dungeon. Calm down a moment.”

The girl seemed to be growing more upset by the second, and telling her to calm down was remarkably not the thing she wanted to hear.

“You… you’re trying to trick me!” She suddenly screamed. “You want to make Master punish me!”

“Calm down… I just want to leave, okay? Take me to the entrance to the dungeon, okay?”

“It’s not a dungeon!” She shouted. “This is Master’s home! This is my home! I’m Master’s Slave. I’ve always been Master’s Slave. No one will take him away. Not you! Not her! No one!”

“Her?”

Her body rose up in the air, starting to glow with some scary looking light. Ah, crap, I triggered the ghost! The knight that completely schooled me was torn to shreds by this elf! Was I seriously going to die now?

She raised her hands up and a powerful blade of wind shot out. I couldn’t see it clearly, but I could see enough to know I needed to leap out of the way.

“Die!” She screeched. “You won’t keep me from Master!”

“St-stop!” I cried out, “You saved me earlier, remember?”

“Th-that was a mistake!” She looked uncertain for a second but then shook her head. “Enough of this! It’s time for you to leave this mansion! If you won’t walk out the door, then you’ll leave in pieces!”

She raised her hands up again. I was completely clueless about what I could do to stop this. This slave girl ghost had gone from helpful to murderous with only a few words! Was there anything I could do?